Game-based feedback for educational multi-user virtual environments

It is generally accepted that informative and timely feedback is important to a student's learning experience within higher education. In the study of commercial digital games it has also become increasingly understood that games are particularly good at providing effective feedback of this form to gameplayers. We discuss recent game based learning research that attempts to harness the motivating qualities of digital games to inform the design of educational technology. Results from this research demonstrate student participation and performance can be improved by providing Game-Based Feedback (GBF) to students. The GBF approach awards points to students for the successful completion of tasks throughout a course of study. Points and achievements accumulated over time builds a profile that provides a student with a potentially powerful representation of their educational identity. In this paper, we argue that virtual worlds are particularly suitable for this form of GBF and can further enhance a student's understanding of their educational standing. We outline a Virtual Learning Landscape (VLL) design that is embedded within a multi-user virtual environment, where educational feedback is supplied to students via their avatar and a virtual world's landscape. The core structural principles of the proposed VLL are explained and several examples of the use of the VLL are provided to illustrate the system.

[1]  Gary Natriello,et al.  Achieving Educational Excellence: A Critical Assessment of Priorities and Practices in Higher Education , 1985 .

[2]  J. Brown,et al.  Why Virtual Worlds Can Matter , 2008 .

[3]  Steve Rabin,et al.  Introduction to Game Development , 2005 .

[4]  Richard Bartle,et al.  Designing Virtual Worlds , 2003 .

[5]  Robert Zubek,et al.  MDA : A Formal Approach to Game Design and Game Research , 2004 .

[6]  S. Wilson.  What Video Games Have to Teach Us about Learning and Literacy , 2006 .

[7]  Chris Crawford,et al.  The Art of Computer Game Design , 1984 .

[8]  Darryl Charles,et al.  Using Player and World Representation Techniques from Computer Games to Improve Student Engagement , 2009, 2009 Conference in Games and Virtual Worlds for Serious Applications.

[9]  Kenneth Yang Teck Lim.  The Six Learnings of Second Life: a Framework for Designing Curricular Interventions In-world , 2009 .

[10]  Darryl Charles,et al.  Enhancing E-Learning Engagement Using Design Patterns from Computer Games , 2008, First International Conference on Advances in Computer-Human Interaction.

[11]  David W. Bustard,et al.  Game Inspired Tool Support for e-Learning Processes , 2009 .

[12]  Katie Salen,et al.  Rules of play: game design fundamentals , 2003 .

[13]  R. Caillois,et al.  Man, Play and Games , 1958 .

[14]  William V. Wright,et al.  A Theory of Fun for Game Design , 2004 .

[15]  S. Schwartz,et al.  Leaving College: Rethinking the Causes and Cures of Student Attrition , 1987 .